Winning the Influence Game

What Every Business Leader Should Know About Government (with Mickey Edwards and Usha Thakrar) – John Wiley & Sons, 2000

Winning the Influence Game is your guide to navigating the morass of competing, overlapping jurisdictions and diverse legislators, regulators, and judges so you can help to shape the laws and rules that will affect your business. The author team from Harvard Business School and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government – who have access to the key players on this issue – reveal the latest tools, techniques, and thinking behind influencing government so businesses can take control. This book presents a model that can be applied to influence games at any level of government – local, state, national, or international. From diagnosing government’s impact on your business to organizing to influence to building coalitions to leveraging the power of the Internet, the authors provide specific guidelines and real-world strategies that will work for all types of businesses. Winning the Influence Game also shares actual stories of successes and failures from recognized leaders in the field of government relations.– Booknews, Inc., Portland, OR booknews.com

“More and more CEOs are discovering that managing one’s business environment is as important as managing operations, finance, and sales. Winning the Influence Game explains how a strategic government relations program can make a major impact on that environment at the federal, state, and local levels.”– Douglas G. Pinkham, President, Public Affairs Council

A useful, detailed handbook that should find itself on the desktop-or at the bedside-of every business leader. These are the skills that every business leader needs to succeed in the increasingly complex and rapidly changing globalized economy in which they operate-and to gain competitive advantage for their company’s future.”– Ira Jackson, Director, Center for Business and Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government

“Winning the Influence Game provides an excellent overview for the corporate leader of how government can impact the bottom line-both positively and negatively. The clear, concise, and practical manner in which the book is organized and information provided makes it an extremely useful resource to those charged with the responsibility of creating an effective government relations program.”– Margery Kraus, President and CEO, APCO Worldwide